2025-04-17 19:12:18CHAPTER 4: King of Nothing
Three weeks.
That’s how long Rowan spent hidden from the world, isolated, sore, and mostly pissed off.
For the first two days, he could barely move. On the third, the system stopped feeling sorry for him.
‘New Task: Physical Calibration Trial – Tier 1
Task: Hold a two-minute plank. Failures Remaining: 2Penalty for Failure: Neural shock calibration delay’Rowan stared at the glowing white text hovering in front of him and groaned. “OH, you’ve got to be kidding me.”
He had barely recovered from cracked ribs and a black eye, and now the system wanted him to work out?
He dropped to the floor and positioned himself on his elbows.
One minute in, his arms started shaking.
By one minute thirty, his entire body trembled like a paper in a hurricane.
At one minute forty-two, he collapsed.
‘FAIL.
Retry Initiated.’
“Who built this sentient torture program?” Rowan grunted as he rolled onto his back.
‘Complaints Registered. Ignoring…’
By Day 5, he was running drills across a virtual obstacle course built into his mind.
‘Dodge left, Rowan!’ the system barked.
He dove right.
‘FAIL. Virtual shuriken has pierced your kidney.’
“WHAT?!”
‘Simulated. Not real. But it would’ve hurt. A lot.’
Rowan cursed under his breath.
“Motherfu***”
This wasn’t training, it was character assassination.
On Day 10, the system dropped a new mission:
‘Neural Interface Calibration – Initiating
Objective: Hack a simulated firewall in under 60 seconds.’He sat at a desk in a sleek mental simulation, like a digital CIA office and stared at a glowing black wall.
Rows of glowing symbols scrolled down like The Matrix on speed.
“Uh... hello? Instructions please?” Rowan asked.
‘You're supposed to feel it. Intuit the code.’
“How? I’m not a walking USB!”
‘Wrong answer.’
Every failed attempt sent a mild electric pulse through his skull.
Not painful, just annoying enough to remind him that failure sucked.
By Day 15, something clicked.
He stopped trying to analyze the code... and started syncing with it.
His brain felt like it was on fire, his pupils dilated and changed its color to sea blue, and the code began to pulse with rhythm.
Like music.
He cracked the firewall in 39 seconds.
‘SUCCESS. Neural Interface Active.
You may now breach any digital server with 60% efficiency.’
Rowan slumped back in the chair, panting.
“If this is level one...then I don’t want to see level ten.”
On Day 20, Conrad walked into the training suite to find Rowan hanging upside down from a pull-up bar, reading server logs aloud while his system fired questions at him mid-exercise.
“Is this... what you do for fun now?” Conrad asked.
Rowan smirked upside-down. “It’s revenge cardio.”
Conrad chuckled. “You're almost ready.”
“Almost?” Rowan dropped from the bar and landed with a grunt. “I’ve unlocked neural interface, physical stability, visual compression mode, AND resistance to passive manipulation. What more do I need to do, walk on water?”
‘New Task: Water Walking – Unlocked.’
Rowan pointed at the hologram. “ What the hell? That was sarcasm.”
‘System does not understand sarcasm.’
“Of course you don’t,” he muttered.
Day 21.
Rowan stood in front of a mirror in a custom-tailored black suit. His long dark hair fell just below his shoulders. The mole on his cheek was more pronounced now that the swelling had gone down.
His eyes?
Still forest-green. Still sharp.
But colder.
Sharper.
He straightened his collar and whispered, “Let’s go remind them who I am.”
**********
“Next slide, please,” barked Mr. Cooper, clicking his remote with pride. “As you can see, projections are stable despite the recent losses.”
The board members nodded, half asleep, sipping overpriced coffee.
Aurora sat at the end of the table, legs crossed, expression bored. Carson stood behind her like a loyal hound, arms folded.
That’s when the boardroom doors opened.
Slow. Smooth. Unapologetic.
Everyone turned.
Rowan walked in.
Every step was controlled. Intentional. Deadly.
The silence was thick. Like a room full of statues.
Mrs. Cooper was the first to speak.
“You…”
Rowan smiled. “Me.”
Mr. Cooper stood up, red-faced. “ What are you doing here? You’re trespassing! Guards, Get this peasant out of here”
“Hey Mr Coop, Slow your roll, I just came…. visiting,” Rowan corrected, casually sliding a Stormont Corporation ID card across the table.
The logo shimmered, Stormont Corp.
Not Cooper Enterprises.
“You’re bluffing,” Carson hissed.
Rowan turned to him. “Cute of you to speak, considering I just pulled the firewall logs from your server this morning. You might want to check your offshore accounts, by the way.”
Carson paled, “What are you talking about?”
Mr. Cooper barked at security. “Get him out of here!”
But the guards hesitated.
Rowan pulled out a device and tapped it. A hologram popped up above the board table.
‘DECLARATION OF INHERITANCE – STORMONT ESTATE
NAME: ROWAN STORMONTAUTHORIZED BY: STATE COURT OF NEW YORK’Everyone froze.
Rowan smiled,This was exactly what he wanted.
“Judging by the expression on your faces. You'll be seeing more of me”
Aurora stood. “Rowan, Is this some kind of game? What do you think you're doing?”
Rowan turned to her. “Game’s over, sweetheart. You guys fired me five years ago. So i just came to say hi”
‘System Alert: Sync 12.4% — Confidence Boost +3%’
The security guards stepped back.
Rowan walked to the end of the table, leaned over, and whispered to Mr. Cooper,
“I was the king you made into a houseboy. Now I’m back on my throne. And thank you. This could only happen because you threw me out”
Mr. Cooper’s face turned an interesting shade of purple.
Rowan straightened, glancing around the room.
“This company has laundered funds, manipulated stock, and betrayed contracts all under your name. The authorities will be very interested.”
“You can’t prove…” Aurora started.
Rowan’s system blinked.
‘Display Evidence?’
“Yes,” Rowan said aloud.
His system connected instinctively to the second hologram already in the boardroom and it popped up videos, emails, transaction trails.
All timestamped.
All damning.
Mrs. Cooper let out a strangled noise.
Rowan’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “This is just the first domino, Mother”
He turned to the rest of the Board members. “Buckle your shoes People, You’re in for a a ride”.
He turned to leave, coat flaring behind him.
But just as he passed the door, his system chimed.
‘High-Level Energy Signature Detected
Source: Unknown. Matching Genetic Pattern Located Nearby.Status: Approaching.’Rowan stopped.
“Approaching?” he muttered. “Who?”
The system flashed a final alert.
‘MATCH FOUND: GENETIC TWIN SIGNATURE. 84% COMPATIBILITY.
Rowan’s heart skipped.’
Twin.
Here?
Now?
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 34 – Echo Simulation
CHAPTER 34Rowan's eyes blinked open to cold, sterile silence. The Mirror Room hummed softly around him, its eerie blue glow pulsing in time with his heartbeat. Every pulse felt like a countdown.A prompt hovered in the air in front of him:[SIMULATION ACTIVE. SUBJECT: ROWAN STORMONT. SYNCING NEURAL THREADS... 92%]His chest rose and fell rapidly. He gripped the sides of the chair, preparing for the shift. …96%...98%...100%.The world tilted.He was no longer in the Mirror Room.Now he stood in the middle of a battlefield, scorched and broken. The sky roiled with ash-colored clouds, occasionally torn open by streaks of synthetic lightning. Stormont banners burned in the distance. Drones screeched overhead, unleashing plasma rounds into the haze. Screams and static crackled in every direction.And then he saw her againAcross the shattered earth stood Raven. But not the Raven he remembered. Not his sister This Raven wore obsidian armor laced with crimson, her eyes glowing blood-red l
CHAPTER 33 – Faultlines
CHAPTER 33 – FaultlinesRowan sat alone in his command chamber, the room dimly lit by flickering system holograms. The hum of idle machinery underscored the silence like a ticking bomb. His eyes flicked to the console as he initiated yet another twin sync attempt. ‘[‘System Alert: TWIN LINK — DISCONNECTED. CONNECTION FAILED.]’He slammed his palm against the console. “Damn it!”He stood abruptly, the chair rolling back. “Where the hell are you, Raven?” he muttered under his breath, tension crackling in every movement.He moved swiftly down the corridor to Raven’s quarters. The door hissed open. The room was empty. Her bed was neatly made, the lights dimmed. No signs of a struggle. No sign of her.Just then, Conrad appeared at the doorway, his face grim. “She left hours ago. One of the guards said she needed air,” he said hesitantly. “She didn’t log her destination.”Rowan’s expression darkened like a storm cloud. “And no one thought to stop her?”“I’m sorry, sir. I—I should have be
CHAPTER 32 – Red Markers
CHAPTER 32‘Stormont Estate – Medical WingAria stood alone in the biometric lab, staring at the system scan that glowed faint red across her forearm. The same pulse had shown up in Celeste during the rescue,red veins, vibrating like warning flares.Her breath caught.The display didn’t lie.She tapped the screen again. A low hum responded.‘[Dormant Code Signature: ERIS PROTOCOL – PARTIAL HOST FOUND]’She staggered back.“No… that can’t be right,” she whispered.The ERIS PROTOCOL wasn’t just a legend buried in encrypted logs. It was real. And it was inside her.Her hands shook. The lab felt smaller now.She had seen what Celeste could do with just a partial activation. What if hers was deeper? What if she was the key to the destruction of Raven and Rowan and didn’t even know it?Aria’s fingers hovered over the console, her breath shallow. System diagnostics danced across her vision, flickering and erratic since the blackout. Something was… wrong. Deeply wrong.She isolated the code,
CHAPTER 31 – Fallout.
CHAPTER 31Sirens blared faintly in the background, echoing through the dark, pulsing corridors of the Helix facility. The entire system was still reeling from the blackout shockwave Celeste had unleashed. Red emergency lights flickered back to life, casting jagged shadows across the floor."We have to move," Rowan said, clutching his side as the group began to run. Sparks sizzled from overhead conduits. He could feel his internal systems glitching vision flickering, telemetry lagging."Raven’s gone," Celeste said, glancing behind them. "She escaped in the chaos.""Good," Rowan muttered, staggering. "Because I wasn’t sure I could… fight her."“But we have to go before they come back”They reached a sealed corridor door. Aria’s override hadn’t reached this far. Celeste raised her hand, and with a hum of energy, the door’s lock fizzled and popped.>>>>>Smoke curled into the night sky as the remains of Helix HQ crumbled behind them.Rowan staggered, one arm clutching Celeste, the other
CHAPTER 30 – The Circle Has No End
CHAPTER 30 HOURS EARLIER THAT DAY.The air was thick with tension as Raven stood alone in the dimly lit chamber. The walls pulsed with a faint, eerie glow, reflecting the advanced technology embedded within. She was led here by Trace, who had promised her answers.Suddenly, the room transformed. Holographic projections surrounded her, depicting a future where she stood atop a throne, ruling alone. The world beneath her feet was in chaos, but she remained untouched, powerful, and revered.Trace’s voice echoed, distorted and ancient, "This is your destiny, Raven. Embrace it."Raven’s eyes narrowed. "What is this? Some trick?"Trace stepped into view, his smirk laced with ambition. "Not a trick Raven, but the truth. One version of it, at least. With Celeste’s power under our control, this future is within reach."Raven turned sharply. “Who is Celeste?” she asked, her voice steady but her hands curled into fists."You will meet her soon," Trace replied. "And when you do, you'll under
CHAPTER 29 – Celeste
CHAPTER 29 – CelesteStormont Estate – Rowan’s Private StudyThe room was dimly lit, the glow from the holographic display casting shadows on the walls. Rowan sat at his desk, eyes fixed on the image before him, a dossier labeled "Celeste Vercelli."Dante stood nearby, arms crossed, his expression a mix of concern and determination.“So,tell me again, what exactly is she? Is she a human being?”. Rowan asked, looking up at Dante, who didn;t exactly respond at first. "She's my half-sister," Dante began, breaking the silence. "A system-savant, unparalleled in her abilities. The Helix Circle stole her six months ago."Rowan looked up, eyebrows raised. "The Helix Circle? I thought they were a myth."Dante shook his head. "They're very real. An underground syndicate specializing in system manipulation and black-market enhancements. They've been using Celeste to further their own agenda."Rowan leaned back, processing the information. "Why come to me?""Because I need someone I can trust,"
You may also like
My Sniper System
kuhaku_sora21.5K viewsCrazy Devouring System
Laughing-in-the-wind16.4K viewsThe martial Lord
Supreme king90.0K viewsThe Legendary System
KazuhiroSeijuro41.6K viewsAssassination System: Vengeance
SirriMist1.4K viewsThe Reincarnated Heir Becomes A General
Oryiman576 viewsADOTH: the exiled system.
Goodluck Ernest.5.0K viewsCheated No More: The All-in-One System
WillyCatchFish49.4K views